American retailers call the last Saturday before Christmas Super Saturday. For 2023, the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights expected about 142 million people to shop on that day, in stores or online. In 2017 the forecast had been 126 million.
Fallingwater
On September 22, 1935, Edgar Kaufmann called Frank Lloyd Wright from Milwaukee to say that he was driving over to see the drawings for his new house. Wright had nothing on paper. “Come right along E.J., we’re ready for you,” he answered. According to his apprentice Edgar Tafel, Wright drew the plans while the apprentices watched, and finished shortly before Kaufmann arrived.
The story is famous and disputed. A popular version says the drawings took about two hours, and at least one critic doubts it. The Carnegie Magazine account adds that the plans “were not a spur-of-the-moment exercise.”
Notice of Late Filing
An American public company that cannot file its annual report on time files a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission, known as Form NT 10-K. A timely notice gives an automatic grace period of 15 days for the annual report, and five days for a quarterly report.
The warning helps, but it does not remove the cost. The business-school professors Eli Bartov of NYU and Yaniv Konchitchki of Berkeley found that stock prices fall after these notices. Investors “do not accept at face value management assertions about the expected filing date.”
The Trade Deadline
Major League Baseball teams may trade players until a fixed deadline in midsummer. In 2024 the deadline was 6 p.m. Eastern time on July 30. The pitcher Jack Flaherty was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers minutes before it.
In the National Hockey League, deadline day in 2020 and again in 2022 set a record of 32 trades.
December 15
To have health coverage from HealthCare.gov starting on January 1, Americans must sign up by December 15. On December 15, 2016, 670,000 people selected a plan, “the biggest day of any Open Enrollment ever.”
In 2015, as applications surged in the final weeks, the government extended the deadline by two days, to December 17. In 2016, “to meet high demand,” it extended the deadline by two business days, to December 19.
On the Due Date
For one grant cycle of the National Institutes of Health in 2014, applications were due on October 6. Of 4,856 applications, 2,068, or 43 percent, came in on that day. NIH later found that applications submitted on the due date were funded at about the same rate as those submitted earlier.
Use It or Lose It
Budgets of federal agencies expire at the end of the fiscal year. The economists Jeffrey Liebman and Neale Mahoney found that federal spending in the last week of the year is 4.9 times higher than the weekly average for the rest of the year.
Information technology projects bought in that last week were two to six times more likely to receive a lower quality rating.
Hours Before Midnight
On September 30, 2023, federal funding was due to run out at midnight. Late that Saturday, hours before the deadline, Congress passed a 45-day funding bill, and President Biden signed it. The Senate vote was 88 to 9.
Earlier that year, the Treasury had projected that it could run out of money to pay the government’s bills on June 5. The Senate passed a debt-limit bill on June 1, and the President signed it on June 3.
The 45-day bill did not end the problem. It set a new deadline.
Five Minutes Late
On July 18, 2022, a taxpayer in Alabama filed a petition with the U.S. Tax Court electronically at 11:05 p.m. Central time. In Washington, where the court sits, it was already 12:05 a.m. the next day. In 2023 the Tax Court ruled that the petition was filed late and dismissed the case (Nutt v. Commissioner).
Asking for more time has its own deadline. At the Supreme Court, a request to extend the time for a petition for certiorari must be filed at least 10 days before the petition is due, except in extraordinary circumstances. Rule 13.5 adds that such an application “is not favored.”
Tax Night
Individual income tax returns in the United States are due on April 15. In 2002, 27.1 million taxpayers, more than 20 percent, waited until the last minute to file, according to the IRS. For decades many post offices stayed open until midnight on April 15, so that late filers could still get their returns postmarked by the deadline.
A taxpayer can get an automatic six-month extension. It must be requested by the filing deadline. The IRS adds: “an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay.”